AGROESSA: An LP Optimization Model for Coffee Sales in La Esperanza AgroIndustrial

Rufino Herrera, the president of AGROESSA, was pondering the implications of the recommendations which came out of the work of Nico de Waal, an MBA student who worked for AGROESSA as a summer intern in 2004. The recommendations focussed on AGROESSA's cash flow management during the coffee harversting season. It was argued that AGROESSA could improve its profits by carefully considering when and to which market it should sell its coffee production. This view was in contrast to AGROESSA's custom of allocating its coffee sales to the different markets in a fairly random fashion, with coffee volume traded being the main consideration. Nico argued that AGROESSA's main consideration should not be coffee volume traded, but rather contribution to the community.